


The Day of the Wolf

by AylaNyan



Category: Doctor Who & Related Fandoms, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: BAMF Rose Tyler, Bad Wolf Rose Tyler, Doctor Who 50th Anniversary, Eighth Doctor as War Doctor, Episode Rewrite: The Day of the Doctor, F/M, Gallifrey, Gallifrey Falls No More, I have no idea how to tag lol, The Moment - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-07-25
Updated: 2019-12-02
Packaged: 2020-07-19 13:27:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 14,690
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19974808
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AylaNyan/pseuds/AylaNyan
Summary: A dimension-hopping Rose Tyler lands accidentally on a seemingly deserted planet. Well, shit. Her dimension cannon stops working. Double shit. Frustrated and unsure of what to do she ventures on, trying to find somebody who can help her fix the dimension cannon...and stumbles right into a mess. The planet she is stranded on isn't some desolate rock, it's Gallifrey in mids of the Last Great Time War. Rose knows she has to leave and get back to her task of finding the Doctor; the whole multiverse is at stake with all the stars going out. But trouble finds her one way or another, and Rose discovers that her presence on Gallifrey may not be a mere coincidence after all.





	1. So it begins

**Author's Note:**

> Hello! This is my first serious attempt at writing fanfiction, so I hope it isn't too terrible. I'll try to update at least once a week but I can't make any promises. Oh, and I probably should tell you guys that I'm not a native English speaker; apologies for any major grammar mistakes. If you see anything that is an absolute crime against the English language, please let me know! :)

Rose groaned while sitting up. Her head felt like it was going to explode, and her vision was blurred. Something wasn't quite right. Usually, when she jumped across dimensions, it wasn't as intense as this one had been. She hardly got a headache anymore.

Finally being able to see clearly again, she looked around. Rose found herself in a desert-like place. Everywhere she looked, she saw nothing but sand and some distant mountains on the horizon. Two suns on a burnt orange sky were shining above her head. Sighing, she looked down at her left wrist; to her horror, the dimension cannon seemed to be on shut down. It never just shut down during a jump.

"Come on.", she growled, while rapidly pressing various buttons and tapping at the black screen.

Her efforts were fruitless though; the dimension cannon was dead.  
Rose rubbed her forehead in frustration. She was on a seemingly desolate planet in some parallel universe, had no way to return to Pete's World and couldn't even contact her team. Great, she thought, now what?

Seeing no other option, Rose started walking in a random direction. Perhaps the planet was inhabited after all, and with a bit of luck, the locals would be friendly, and willing to help her out. Rose knew that it was unlikely for her to get so lucky. Usually, she had to run for her life. At least that bit of her life hadn't changed, since Bad Wolf Bay and her painful goodbye from the Doctor.

_"I'm burning up a sun, just to say goodbye."_

The Doctor's words echoed in her head, twisting her heart painfully in her chest. Goodbye. Just this word alone made her stomach drop and breathing almost impossible. She felt the gaping hole in her very soul that she tried to ignore, again, causing her to close her eyes and take a deep breath.

She needed to focus. The Doctor was wrong for once. Somehow she had managed to jump across dimensions without destroying anything. At least not destroying things further than they already were. Rose knew that she needed to find the Doctor not only because of her own personal reasons. The stars were going out, one by one, the void between the universes itself seemed like dying, and nobody could explain how or why. The whole multiverse was at stake.

The sight of a small barn in the distance brought her out of her musings. She hadn't noticed it before, because it had been hidden by a sand dune. Odd, she thought. What in hell's name was a single barn doing in the middle of a desert?

Deciding it was her best option, Rose walked towards the barn cautiously. Better safe than sorry. Up close, the barn looked positively abandoned. The wood was worn and splintered in many places. At some places, there were holes in the walls, and the big double doors were slightly ajar. Slowly, Rose entered the barn. The inside smelled dusty. It was eerily quiet; her neck tingled, and she had a strong feeling of being watched. Somehow, she felt like something terrible had happened here.

She walked further into the barn, past junk and debris until she stood in the middle. Someone was definitely watching her, she could feel it.

"Hello?"

No reply. The feeling of being watched intensified. Rose scanned the dusty barn carefully, trying to pick up any movement or noise. Suddenly she heard something behind her, but before she could whirl around, she felt something, that was unmistakably the end of a gun, digging into her back. Rose stiffened. Her right hand was gripping the small laser gun that she was carrying with her for safety.

"Look, whoever you are, I don't mean you any harm, yeah?", she said, hoping she sounded as reassuring as she thought she did.  
The person didn't reply, just continued to press the end of their gun into her back.  
Rose didn't know if that, what she was about to do, was a smart move or just incredibly stupid.

"Okay. Maybe you've noticed that I'm armed. I'm gonna drop my gun and turn around, so we can talk properly."  
She didn't wait for an answer, instead slowly pulled her laser gun out of its holster around her hip and dropped it to the ground. Interpreting the fact that she hadn't been shot yet as a good sign, she lifted her hands above her head and turned around.

Rose looked down on a child who could not be older than ten years. The boy stared at her intensely with his green eyes, his gun now aimed at her stomach. He had a mop of brown curls on his head that fell down to his shoulders, pale skin, and a small nose.

"Who are you and what are you doing here?", the boy asked in a tone what, Rose guessed, was supposed to be authoritative and perhaps a bit threatening. Still, a bit shocked, and put out that a child was threatening her, she needed a few seconds to answer.

"I'm just a traveller. See the device on my arm?" Rose nodded her head to the dimension cannon, "I travel with it, but it kinda malfunctioned, and I accidentally landed here. So, you see, I don't mean any harm."

The boy searched her eyes, looking at her with suspicion.

"My name is Rose Tyler and yours?", she tried again.

After what seemed an eternity, the boy lowered his gun slowly.

"You can call me Droy."

"Nice to meet you, Droy." Rose slowly lowered her hands to her sides.

"So, what are you doing here, all on your own? I don't want to be rude or anythin' but is someone else here? Someone who can help me with my device?"

"Not here, no.", Droy answered, foregoing her first question. "I mean, I can take you to-" A loud shout interrupted the boy and moments later, the barn door opened. A girl, with short blonde hair barreled through the door, into the barn. She appeared to be the same age as Droy. Frantically, she closed the door behind her.

"They are here, Droy!", she cried out, her voice desperate and full of panic. She ran to him and grabbed his hands, completely missing Rose's presence. "Come on, we have to go!"

"Wait a minute.", Rose said, confused. "Who is here? Is someone attacking you?" She looked between the two children. "I can help."

"Who is this?", the frightened girl asked at the same time.

"It's alright, Ari, she won't harm us.", Droy tried to calm her.

The girl, Ari, looked at Rose and, after hesitating a bit, she nodded in understanding. She didn't let go of Droy's hand though and started to explain.

"Daleks. About three miles from here. They are here Droy, it's awful! Not many, I counted five, but one of them is dangerous enough. They are heading this way, which is why we have to go now! We must warn the High Council."

"But that's impossible!", Droy cried out. "The Daleks can't just breach the transduction barrier; no one can!"

"But they did, I saw it with my own eyes! We must warn the High Council, come on now!", Ari retorted and tried to drag Droy to the doors of the barn.  
  
Rose had stayed silent during the conversation. Her eyes had narrowed, and with each word that'd come out of Ari's mouth, she'd gritted her teeth a little more. Bloody Daleks. No matter how many different aliens Rose had battled, either with the Doctor or alone for four years now, the Daleks always popped up. She tried to help where she can during her jumps, especially when Daleks were involved, and most of the time she succeeded. But there also had been times, where she'd failed; times where she hadn't managed to save everybody.  
She looked at Droy and Ari; Droy tried not to let it show, but it was clear that he was frightened. His jaw was set, and his eyes were wide. Ari didn't even bother to hide her fear; her hands were shaking, and she looked close to tears.  
Not this time, Rose snarled internally, and a plan began to form in her head.

"Okay, you two.", she kneeled down in front of the children and took their hands. "You need to listen to me very carefully now. I'm gonna go out there and hold the Daleks off, and you,", she squeezed their hands, "will run as hard as you can and warn that High Council of yours, understood?"

Droy immediately shook his head. "You can't do this, they'll kill you!"

Rose stood up, put her gun back into its holster and smiled reassuringly. "Believe me, they tried to kill me more than once, but as you can see I'm still here."

She held a hand up when both children tried to protest again.  
"Now, I don't wanna hear a word. When we go out, Ari'll tell me from which direction the Daleks are coming, and then you'll run. You have to warn your people."

Ari and Droy nodded reluctantly and together, they exited the barn. The brightness outside, caused Rose to blink a few times. She expectantly looked down to Ari. The girl took a deep breath and pointed her finger roughly at the direction Rose came from. Rose frowned at this; surely she would've noticed Daleks closeby. However, she chose not to say anything but nod shortly. Then, she shooed the children away.

"Off you go, run as fast as you can, and don't look back."

After she made sure that the children were a great distance away, Rose took a deep breath and walked into the opposite direction. She didn't have to walk for a long time; just on the other side of the sand dune she'd passed earlier, three Daleks made their way towards her. Another two were trailing a bit behind. Rose quickly pressed herself into the sand and peeked over the edge of the dune. Then, she looked at her laser gun. It had enough power to kill one or two of them. She mentally patted her shoulder for recharging it before her jump.

There was still a problem though; even if she managed to kill two of the Daleks in the front, there was nothing that she could use as a cover. The Daleks had almost reached the bottom of the dune, she had to act now. They hadn't noticed her yet. Before she could question her sanity, she aimed the gun at the Dalek nearest to her and pulled the trigger. The beam hit the Dalek just above his eyestalk, causing the hull to explode, and possibly, kill the Dalek within. Shouts of surprise and anger followed. Rose turned their surprise into her advantage and destroyed a second Dalek. Her gun, smoking and short-circuiting, was useless now. In cases like this, there was only one option left. She stood up and bolted into the direction of the barn, praying that, when she reached it, she would at least have an idea of what to do next.

"EXTERMINATE!"

"EXTERMINATE!"

The shouts of the Daleks grew closer and closer while Rose ran, and she heard the unmistakable sound of their death rays. One ray hit the ground, close to her feet and she stumbled but continued to run, simply not allowing herself to fall. She didn't come this far, just to get killed by a bunch of stinking Daleks.

She reached the barn, unfortunately without any ideas, so she just ran past it. The barn only full of junk, and wood wouldn't withstand one Dalek, let alone three. Just as Rose wondered how long she would be able to outrun the Daleks and if the children made it safely back to their people, she heard shouts from the direction she was running to. Another death ray hit the ground near her, as she urged herself to run harder, ignoring her burning legs and protesting lungs.

There! Just a short distance away, she saw a group of people, dressed in red uniforms, with guns in their hands. Soldiers, Rose thought. She would've shouted in relief if she'd any breath left. Instead, she concentrated on running as fast as she can towards them, the Daleks hot on her heels.

When she saw the guns pointed at the Daleks at her back, Rose lunged the last feet forward and landed in the sand, just in front of the soldiers. She allowed herself to stay on her knees and hands for a moment to catch her breath, before scrambling up. Meanwhile, the soldiers had dealt with the remaining Daleks and were now looking at her with an unreadable look.

  
"Uh, thank you, guys. You came in just the right time.", Rose tried to break the uncomfortable silence, looking at the faces of the five people, surrounding her now. They all had dark skin, same short haircut, and intense dark eyes.

"In the name of the High Council of the Time Lords of Gallifrey, you are being arrested because of trespassing and thus smuggling Daleks onto this planet, endangering, not only billions of civilian lives but also the course of the Time War.", the only woman in the group of soldiers declared with a clear, sharp voice.

"Wha'? No, wait, I didn't bring the Daleks here, I swear! I was just passing through.", Rose tried to explain but before she could do anything else, a pair of handcuffs closed around her wrists and she was dragged by two male soldiers towards a small spaceship.

Rose struggled against her restraints but the soldiers had an iron grip on her, as did the handcuffs. She then gave up, seeing that it was hopeless. As if this day wasn't bad enough, she thought with a huff. Now she had to deal with some fancy High Council of-

Rose froze the moment she recalled the exact words of the woman.  
_Time Lords. Gallifrey. Time War._  
No.

"Shit."


	2. Welcome on Gallifrey

Rose stayed silent while they dragged her into the small space ship. It was bigger on the inside of course. Hundreds of thoughts and emotions ran through her head. Tremendous joy and relief, because she'd finally found the right universe; the Doctor had told her that Time Lords only existed in one universe. Dread, because she was on Gallifrey; a planet that had been destroyed in the Time War and judging by what the woman had said earlier, she was right in the middle of it. That was the one thing Rose didn't understand though; the Doctor had told her that the events of the Time War were time-locked. No one gets in, no one gets out. So, how did she get in? And more important; how will she get out?

Rose looked out of the window of the small space ship. She didn't even know if it was a space ship or some sort of TARDIS. Although, it didn't look like a TARDIS, neither felt it like one. She couldn't be sure of course since she'd only been in the Doctor's TARDIS.

They had been flying over the seemingly endless desert for a while when Rose saw the outlines of a city. Tall towers and skyscrapers gleamed under the light of the twin suns. Some of them were rounded on top, like the biggest one in the centre of the city, and others pierced the sky like sharp needles. The city itself seemed to rest in between two mountains and was enclosed in a huge glass dome. It looked absolutely stunning, and Rose couldn't help but stare in awe. Her current situation was less than ideal, but despite that, she was excited to see the home planet of the Doctor with her own eyes.

Rose turned her head to the soldier sitting next to her. He hadn't spoken a word, not one of them had, but she hadn't been exactly talkative either.   
"So, where are you taking me? What happens to me now?"

The dark-skinned man only looked at her with a frown, as if she was something he couldn't quite understand, before turning his head away from her. Rose huffed and wished she could cross her arms in front of her chest to show her annoyance. They could at least tell her if she was going to be imprisoned or questioned or whatever Time Lords did!

Shortly after her failed attempt on a conversation, they landed near the less impressive buildings that surrounded the glass dome. They were a lot smaller and looked rather shabby. The place of the poor people, Rose guessed. Again, she was dragged wordlessly out of the space ship. From up close, the golden and silver towers looked even more impressive. Rose craned her neck and tried to take in as much as possible. Somewhere in the back of her mind, she thought she must look ridiculous with her eyes wide and mouth hanging open.

"Unit Alpha three seven, we have the intruder restrained. Request permission to enter the Citadel.", the dark-skinned woman spoke into her wrist. Some sort of communication device, Rose figured.

"Permission granted. The High Council expects your arrival.", came the short reply. The woman then pressed a few buttons on her wrist, and Rose felt herself being teleported.

Rose blinked a few times, her eyes trying to adjust to the sudden dimness. They were inside a massive room with grey and blue walls. Other than a few cushions and plants, the room was rather bare though. Rose frowned. When the Doctor had talked about Time Lords, he always had described them as a pompous lot. Well, this doesn't look very fancy, Rose thought.

She couldn't look around longer though; being dragged by two soldiers was making looking around rather difficult. They walked on and on; through hallways, upstairs, downstairs, making a turn left, and then right, walking through another massive room. Rose was positively lost now and thoroughly annoyed. She was sure that they were doing this on purpose. This only added to her irritation. After yet another turn, she gave in to her temper.

"Alright, this is just ridiculous. Just stop tryin' to confuse me, and bring me to your High Council! Seriously, what's the point? As if I have any idea where I am! Whose stupid idea was this anyway?"

Rose glared at the back of the woman, who walked a few paces ahead of her, her frustration overwhelming her. "Oi, soldier girl, I asked ya somethin'! Where are ya takin' me? How did ya even teleport me?"

Her voice had increased with every question until she was practically shouting, not caring if it offended them or not. Usually, Rose would try to be diplomatic but it already had been a long and hard day, then her Dimension Cannon had stopped working, and now she was a prisoner.

"Your handcuffs.", a drawling voice answered suddenly. "They have a build-in teleporter."

In mids her angry shouting, Rose hadn't noticed that they'd stopped walking. The soldier group stepped to the side and revealed another group of people in the room they were in. There was four of them; three men and one woman. Two of the men and the woman wore heavy, red robes. The third man was dressed in a classic black suit. Rose thought he looked like one of those fancy bankers running around London. Airs and graces, her mum would've said.

"As for your other question,", the man in the suit continued in his drawling voice, "it's standard protocol."

Rose didn't know if it was the incredibly condescending tone or his cold and arrogant look, but something about him annoyed her to no end. He talked to her like she was a child, ugh. "My point stands.", she fired back coolly, meeting his dark eyes. "It's still stupid. As if I had any idea where the hell you've teleported me to."

"You can never be careful enough, don't you agree?" A ghost of a smirk appeared on his lips.

Rose glared at him. What the hell was he playing at? Before she could reply though, one of the other men held up his hand.

"That is enough Chancellor Braxiatel, thank you.", he said, with a raspy voice.

He seemed to be the oldest of them, with a balding head. The remaining hair on his head was white, and he had quite a few wrinkles on his face. His icy blue eyes, like the ones of her first Doctor, locked on her. But unlike her first Doctor, they held no warmth or sadness. Rose saw a mad glint in his eyes, while he looked at her like she was dirt under his shoes. She forced herself not to squirm under his piercing gaze and lifted her chin defiantly.

"I am Lord President Rassilon.", he introduced himself, walking towards her. "Do you know where you are?"

Rose shook her head. "Not really. I assume Gallifrey is the name of this planet; one of your soldiers mentioned it when they arrested me."

She couldn't let them know that she exactly knew where she was. This was Gallifrey in the middle of the Time War. If they found out that she had knowledge of their future, they'd want to know, Time Lords or not. Rose couldn't let that happen; knowledge about oneself's future was a dangerous thing.

"That is correct. You are on Gallifrey." He smiled slightly, his face seemed almost friendly. Then he inched closer, towering over her. Gone, was the almost friendly look.

"Now, tell me how you managed to get in here.", he demanded in a soft but dangerous voice that sent shivers down Rose's spine.

"I thought it's obvious; your soldiers dragged me in here two minutes ago.", she finally replied, arching one eyebrow.

"Oh, you think you're a clever one, don't you?", Rassilon almost growled. "Answer the question before I lose my patience."

Okay. Maybe not the best approach, Rose thought, nervously.  
"I-I don't know", she answered truthfully, berating herself mentally for her stuttering.

"You don't know? Don't try to feed me lies, girl! How did you get through the transduction barrier? Who are you working for?"

Rose took a small breath and straightened her spine. "Yes, I don't know how I got through your transduction thingy!", she said exasperated and then turned to the other Time Lords in the room. "Look, I really didn't mean to land on your planet. I'm just a traveller, passing through. If you don't want me on your planet, that's fine. I'll just leave."

Braxiatel and the blonde woman in the red robes watched her with a small frown. The third man in red robes just crossed his arms in front of his chest.

"Leave?", asked Rassilon incredulously. "You won't go anywhere until you tell me how you let Daleks into my planet!"

"I did not let the Daleks on this planet! Why would I do that? I just wanted to help those kids. They were scared and alone, so I told them to run and warn you. I managed to kill two Daleks, but then I had to run for it. Your soldiers know the rest."

Rassilon eyed the soldiers expectantly. "Is that correct, General?"

The dark-skinned woman, the General, nodded. "What she says is correct Lord President. If I may be so bold sir, from what we can tell this woman is human. Although our scans registered a slight difference, the atmospheric traces in her body match with Sol III. But we also found residual particles from the void. If I had to guess sir, I'd say she comes from a parallel universe."

Rose winced internally. There goes the plan to keep them in the dark about herself. And bloody when did they scan her anyway? She felt a bit like the first time the Doctor had told her that the TARDIS went into her head to translate foreign languages. Rassilon, Braxiatel and the other two Time Lords watched her now with surprise.

"A parallel universe?", the blonde Time Lord echoed astonished. "But that can't be. We're in time-lock! Besides, interdimensional travel is hardly something that humans can or will master."  
"No offence.", she added, looking at Rose.

"Perhaps she stole some unknown technology. Have you noticed the device on her arm? It looks like a vortex manipulator but I don't think it is one.", said the Time Lord who had been silent the whole time, suspiciously.

"She is still in the room.", Rose said, annoyed.

Suddenly, there was a knock and a young woman, maybe a few years older than Rose, walked into the room. She was dressed in a purple robe, her brown hair in an elegant updo.

"Excuse me, Lord President but I think we found out what caused the transduction barrier to fail."

"Well then.", Rassilon said, crossing his arms in front of his chest. "What caused it?"

The young woman cleared her throat, obviously nervous about being the centre of attention. "Well, the circumstances are most unusual. We went through the system recordings and just 0.03 seconds before an unauthorised object, namely this Madam,", she gestured at Rose, "entered Gallifrey's atmosphere, the system noticed a breach in the transduction barrier. Said breach only lasted about 4.35 seconds before it sealed itself. During that time window, our scanners picked up energy readings that were off the scale. Nobody of us has ever seen anything like this. We suspect that they were responsible for the small breach in the barrier. It almost seems like this Madam was pulled off course, right into our atmosphere."

"So, you mean to say that she has nothing to with the Daleks?", Braxiatel asked.

"Well, we can't be sure but it is very unlikely." She fiddled with her hands. "I reckon, the Daleks noticed the short breach in the barrier when they picked up the same energy readings we did and tried to use it to their advantage."

"It makes sense.", Rose said, relieved to have at least some backup. She lifted her handcuffed arms to show the Dimension Cannon. "I know how this thing works, yeah? Been a part of the team that built it and I've been using this for years now, so I know exactly how travelling with it feels like. This time though, it felt different. It was more intense than usual."

"This proves nothing.", Rassilon snarled, eyes twinkling madly. "You are dangerous, girl, I know it. Your timelines are in flux; the little I'm able to see doesn't make any sense. I doubt that the others in this room can see anything at all." He turned to the other Time Lords. "Well, can you?"

Braxiatel and the others shook their heads, while Rose just watched confused. Timelines in flux? What does that mean? She groaned internally; what's happening?

"Well, that seals it then.", Rassilon said, with an air of finality. "Guards, take her. I'll deal with this after the Council meetings."

Two soldiers grabbed her and began dragging her out of the room.

"No!", Rose shouted, struggling against her captors.

"Oh, and remove this device from her person and analyse it.", Rassilon added almost as an afterthought.

"Wait, no! Don't!" But they were already unstrapping the Dimension Cannon from her arm. "You don't understand! You are in greater danger than you think, the whole reality is in danger!", she yelled, desperate for them to understand. She can't lose her Dimension Cannon. So much depended on it. So many lives, so many planets, whole universes. But nobody listened, while she was dragged out of the room. The sound of the closing doors made her ears ring.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Behold chapter two! My description of Gallifrey and the Citadel is inspired by the Doctor Who Wiki, a few Classic Who episodes and two clips on Youtube (one an excerpt of The Day of The Doctor, and the other of Hell Bent, I think.)


	3. Imprisoned

Rose blinked, groggily. The first thing she noticed was the absence of her handcuffs. She sat up on the narrow bed and looked around, rubbing her wrists. There wasn't much to see, though. She was in a small cell; a sink and a closet were crammed in one corner, and the bed she was sitting on in the other. Only the soft orange light of a lamp, outside of the cell, shone through the bars. Rose sighed defeated and let herself fall back on the bed. They'd dragged her through the entire hallway until her screaming and struggling had annoyed them so much that they'd finally sedated her.

"Seriously, why does the universe hate me so much? What did I do? I'm tryin' to save you, you ungrateful little shit.", she said out loud.

"I'm asking myself the same question, you know?", said a smooth, male voice suddenly, from directly beside her.

Rose yelled and jumped out of her bed. "What the hell!"

The voice chuckled, amused. "Apologies, I didn't mean to scare you."

Rose squinted and saw a man in the neighbouring cell. He was sitting on a bed that was beside hers and watching her intently. Rose could make out curly dark hair and soft green eyes. A slightly curved nose, strong jaw and full lips. A bit of a pretty boy, really.

"Who're you, then?"

"I'm Andred. And from what I heard when they brought you here, you are someone who put up quite a fight. I'm impressed.", he chuckled, amused.

"It's not like they had any right to lock me up!", she defended herself. "This bloody Lord President is mad, I tell ya. He wouldn't listen, doesn't even realise how dangerous the situation is." Rose sat back at her bed.

Andred opened his mouth and shut it again. "I'm sorry, did you say Lord President? Not Lady?"

Rose looked at him, taken aback. "Yeah, Lord President Rassilon. That's what he called himself."

"So they really did it, then. Brought him back.", he muttered, darkly.

"Brought back whom?", Rose asked, confused.

"Rassilon.", Andred sighed. "He is one of the founders of the Time Lord society, a legend. Died aeons ago. I've been locked up here, for a while now but even I know there had been talk about resurrecting him. This is very dangerous, indeed. It means they are desperate. Time Lords and desperation never went well."

"Right. That's just what I needed.", Rose said, rolling her eyes. She resisted the urge to bang her head against the metal bars separating her from Andred.   
"I need to get out of here, Andred."

Andred looked at her sympathetically. "I'd love to get out of here as well, but it's virtually impossible. It doesn't look like it, but these holding cells are quite secure."

Rose snorted. "I've escaped from prison cells equipped with energy fields and stuff, I don't think a few metal bars will stop me."   
She was telling the truth; she had escaped from such prison cells but only because she had had a spare gun tucked into her boots. Said laser gun was lying, useless, on the ground on some asteroid now, where she'd dropped it.

"Those bars are not just metal.", Andred retorted. "See the little indentations?", he pointed to the bars facing the corridor. "They are laced with certain toxins and chemicals. Touch the bars, and you will be paralysed for at least a few hours. Besides that, an alarm will go off in the control centre, alerting the guards. Oh, and the opening mechanism for the cells is outside of this corridor, with 27 individual locks."

Rose gaped at him, incredulously. "You're kiddin', right?"

Andred just looked at her, arching one dark eyebrow.

"Damn. Not even a sonic screwdriver would help.", Rose muttered under her breath.

Andred perked up at that. "Sonic screwdriver?"   
He grinned, after getting no reply from Rose. "But of course! I had my suspicions, but now I know for sure; you are one of the Doctor's companions!"

Rose startled at that. Her heart started beating quicker with excitement. She shouldn't ask, she knew, but she couldn't help herself.  
"How did you know?"

"Well, first of all, I associate something as stupidly brilliant as a sonic screwdriver, with the Doctor. Nobody else would see a screwdriver and think about turning it into a sonic device. But mostly it was the look on your face. They always have this look."

"What look?", Rose asked, brows furrowed. She felt like she knew the answer already.

"This look of utter amazement. Like you've seen the most wondrous things in the universe, which I assume you have." He paused and cocked his head a little to the right. "The fact that you're human and the TARDIS key around your neck helped as well."

Rose looked down at her chest and saw her TARDIS key shimmering on its chain. It must've slipped from under her shirt at some point. She touched it gently and tucked it back under her black shirt.

"It's not any TARDIS key. This key is designed to unlock a Type 40 TARDIS, and there is only one such TARDIS, still active."

"Well done, Sherlock.", Rose chuckled, amused and impressed. If Andred was confused by her words, he didn't comment on it. Quiet settled around them, both not entirely sure what to say next. Andred's explanations made it clear that escaping would take her a while. In the meantime, she might as well try to get to know him better. He could be useful. He certainly seemed nice enough.

"So, did you travel with the Doctor, then?"

Andred shook his head. "No, but my wife did. I met her when one of their adventures brought them to Gallifrey. Nasty business with Sontarans and the Vardans. We fell in love while we were defending the planet." He smiled, eyes staring into the distance, longingly.

"What happened?", Rose asked gently. He seemed so sad, her heart ached. She wanted to reach out and comfort him.

"I did some things. Things I'm not really proud of. Mind you, my intention was always to protect my home and Leela but..."

Rose waited patiently and, after a few heartbeats, Andred blurted out everything, obviously needing to talk to somebody. How he had had suspicions about certain affairs at the Celestial Intervention Agency and started investigating. How he had confronted his suspect but was forced to regenerate because he'd walked into a trap. He'd used his new body to his advantage and spied further on his suspect, posing as his right-hand man. But he'd also let his wife believe that he was dead. When the truth had been revealed, Leela was furious and heartbroken. His actions had also been deemed traitorous since he had had no concrete evidence, hence his imprisonment.

After he ended, Rose reached out through the bars and patted his shoulder, comfortingly. He looked utterly heartbroken.

"If you didn't look so miserable right now, I'd smack you.", she said, only half-joking.

"Yeah, I'd deserve it, I suppose.", he chuckled weakly.

"You damn well would, hurting Leela like that!"

They'd talked for a bit more, after that. Andred had asked about her, and how she was even here, given that the Doctor wasn't allowed to take companions with him to Gallifrey, especially not now, with the Time War going on. Rose had deflected those questions, knowing she couldn't reveal anything. After a few times of trying, Andred gave up. She asked him to tell her about Leela, instead, which he did with great pleasure. The more Rose heard about his fierce and beautiful Leela, the more she started to like her. She sounded like a great person; kind, brave, strong, good with knives and excellent in combat. It was, by then, obvious how much Andred loved his wife; his eyes were lit up and a fond smile graced his lips, which occasionally turned into a besotted grin.   
He eventually persuaded Rose to rest at least for a while after she'd yawned three times in a row, saying she'd been out for only an hour after they'd thrown her into her cell.

Now, lying on the small bed, Rose finally could reflect on this absolutely insane day, even for her. She thought back to the young woman who told her she'd been pulled off course somehow, causing her to land here in the first place. What could be so powerful to pull her off course into a time-locked area? And why? Rose's mind raced; she started to think that this was no coincidence. Something was going on, something other than the stars going out but she didn't know what.   
Her mind was running in circles with no solution in sight, she knew. So she did the only thing left; she turned to her side and let sleep claim her.

  
Harsh whispers woke her up, after what felt like a decent amount of rest.   
"We have no time for this, Andred, just tell us the combinations!", a female voice hissed.

"Not until I know that I'll be set free as well!", Andred's voice hissed back.

Suddenly, Rose heard another voice uttering a long string of melodic sounds; some of them sounded an awful lot like Gallifreyan curse words the Doctor occasionally used when tinkering under the console of the TARDIS.

"Careful there.", Rose said, sitting up and running a hand through her mused blonde hair. "No clue what exactly you said but I know some of those words are nasty." She stretched with a small yawn and blinked the sleep from her eyes. Two people were standing on the other side of her and Andred's cells.   
"What on Earth is going on anyway?", she asked, as she recognised them both; one was the pretty, blonde Time Lord, now in lighter red robes and the other was the arrogant banker guy, Braxiatel.

The blonde woman turned away from Andred and regarded her with a friendly smile. "Hello, Rose. I'm Romana, and I'd love to explain everything, but we really don't have much time. Now,", she turned to Andred, her friendly expression souring at once, "give us the bloody combinations!"

"Your word, Romana.", Andred replied stubbornly.

"Freeing one prisoner is bad enough, let alone two.", Braxiatel growled lowly. His expression changed into a haughty one. "And that primitive won't forgive you anyway, so why don't you just stay put like a good soldier?"

"Don't call her that!", Andred snapped.

Romana turned her head to Braxiatel. "You're not helping.", she whispered, exasperated.

Rose eyed Braxiatel with dismay. Arrogant git. "Okay, I have no idea what's going on, or how you know my name but I'm not gonna go anywhere with this sod.", she told Romana, while gesturing to Braxiatel. "Plus, how do I know you will not just drag me to this nutter Rassilon and have me killed, or whatever?" Rose knew she was being stupid; she should take this chance and escape, but she couldn't leave Andred behind. He had done some really stupid things, but he deserved a second chance, in her opinion. Other people had been forgiven for far more cruel crimes. Besides, he was the only person who had been genuinely nice to her, so far.

"Do you really think that we would bother to come here if that was the case?", Braxiatel snapped. "Is it just you, or are all humans so remarkably dull?"

Rose glared at him. "Well, I was gonna say that I'll come with you if Andred can come as well, but now I'm not so sure anymore. What do you even want from me?"

"Don't mind him, Rose, he likes to wind up people when he is irritated.", Romana said, jabbing Braxiatel with her elbow.

"Oh, I know somebody who does the same thing.", Rose uttered under her breath, suddenly thinking of a certain Time Lord. Romana smirked at that, while Braxiatel just grumbled, rubbing his side discreetly.

Romana's smirk was wiped off her face, however, when faint footsteps could be heard. "We've been here for too long already. Quick, Andred, the combinations!"

"I trust you will accept the condition Rose has set?", he asked.

"Oh for Rassilon's sake, yes!", Romana huffed, frustrated. "Just hurry up!"

Andred reached through the bars of his cell, carefully avoiding to touch them. He rested his fingers on Romana's temple, and both closed their eyes. After a few seconds, he let go.

"Brax, buy us some time, would you? We'll meet at the appointed place in exactly fifteen minutes." Braxiatel nodded shortly and walked into the direction of the footsteps steadily coming towards the cells.

"I'll be back in a moment. We have a lot to discuss."  
With those words, Romana rushed into the opposite direction, leaving Rose to stare after her retreating form, until she was swallowed by the shadows. What could she possibly want to discuss with her? Why was she so interested in her, all of a sudden?

"I believe, we have a few interesting hours ahead of us, don't you think?", Andred asked, sounding as astonished as she felt.

"Yeah, I think so, too."

Rose grinned when the bars in front of her started sinking into the floor. A few seconds later she and Andred stepped into the hallway, just as Romana rushed towards them.

"Come on, let's go!", she urged them, already taking off into the direction she came from.

"I know a quicker way out of here, follow me.", Andred said. Rose shrugged and ran after him. Not having the nerve to argue, Romana followed them. She couldn't help the small smile blooming on her face though; it felt just like travelling with the Doctor again, and for a few blissful seconds, Romana almost forgot the horrors of the Time War and their dark future, looming ahead.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A new chapter, yayy! Romana and Brax to the rescue! I don't know why, but I really like them as a team. I know that not many people ship Leela and Andred, but I've always thought they were kind of cute. Their set up was horrible I admit, (way too fast and patchy) but I really wanted to include them into my story.   
> I should tell you guys that from now on, updates might take a while since this is the last chapter I've finished before I started posting, I hope you'll be patient with me :)


	4. Gallifrey falls!

_War Council meeting, Gallifrey, five days earlier_

Quiet murmurs were heard across the room, as the members of the War Council waited for their leader Rassilon. The atmosphere was tense; the Daleks were getting stronger each passing day, and they knew it. The Time Lords knew, if they didn't take any action soon, they would perish.

In one corner of the room, away from the other Time Lords, sat a slightly slumped figure on a chair. It was a Time Lady, wearing dark robes. Her grey, shoulder-length hair was pulled back haphazardly. Stray locks of hair were messily framing her head. Strange symbols were painted on her face, and her large, grey eyes stared into the distance, unfocused. She held a piece of paper in one hand, and an ink pen in the other. This Time Lady was called the Visionary. Like most Time Lords, she could see future events; timelines. What made the Visionary so special, though, was the fact that her predictions always seemed to match with the primary timeline of the Time Lords. This made her invaluable to them, however vague her predictions were. The Time Lords would rather die to admit it, but they were getting desperate and would do just about anything to prevent their extinction. For example, resurrecting one of the greatest Time Lords who ever lived.

Finally, Rassilon entered the meeting hall. The quiet murmurs ceased immediately. Every Time Lord and Time Lady looked at their leader in awe and fear; he was a legend after all and seeing him with their own eyes was quite an experience.

"Well then.", Rassilon said, grimly. "Let us begin."

Reports were exchanged and shortly after, discussions about the best course of action broke out. The War has spread far more than any of them could've anticipated. Time Lords and Daleks fought for dominance in several galaxies and star systems, by now. This resulted in death and destruction; whole species were being wiped out, planets and galaxies destroyed.

Cardinal Romana and Chancellor Braxiatel sat side by side, both knowing that these meetings would not gain them anything. All of reality was on the brink of collapse, and soon there wouldn't be anything left to fight over. They exchanged looks of concern and annoyance, discreetly, of course.

Suddenly, somebody screamed. All heads turned to the Visionary. She was sitting rigidly in her chair, her paper and pen laying on the ground. Rassilon rushed to her side.

"What do you see?", he urged.

"Gallifrey falling.", she whispered, with a trembling voice.   
"Gallifrey falls!", she screamed.

Nobody knew what to say, shellshocked from the revelation.

"No, Gallifrey cannot fall.", Rassilon retorted, firmly.

Romana and Braxiatel watched, with growing concern. Something was making their time senses tingle.

"But there is another thing.", the Visionary rasped out.   
"Something is coming. What is this? Howling? Oh, it's so bright, I can't see...can't see."  
"It's a star! A star is falling on Gallifrey, so gold and bright, I-"

The Visionary slumped back into her chair, unconscious. After that Rassilon ended the meeting, saying he needed time to think. Two guards took the Visionary to her chambers to rest, while the Time Lords were filing out of the hall. Braxiatel slipped Romana a note.

_Chancellor's office in ten minutes._

* * *

  
Romana found Braxiatel on the balcony of his office, staring at the clear night sky. She stepped out and took a deep breath, enjoying the fresh air. Those conference halls could get rather stuffy, after a few hours.

"You felt it too, didn't you?", Braxiatel asked, after a while, not taking his eyes off the stars.

Romana nodded. "Yes. My time senses; it felt... strange. I don't know how to describe it. Do you think the others felt something as well?"

"I'm not sure. They certainly sensed something, but being the ignorant lot they are, they've most likely brushed it off by now, too preoccupied with the Visionary's words. Something is coming, Romana. And whatever it is, it's important." He gazed down at her.  
"Whatever is going to land on Gallifrey will most likely determine the course of this blasted war. We need to be prepared."

"I'm assuming you already started?"

Braxiatel smirked, wryly. "Why, of course, I have, dearest Lady Romana."  
  
Romana smirked too, eyes glinting with mischief. "Absolute discretion?"

"You know me too well."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here is a quick flashback chapter thingy. Not really sure about this one, but I'm posting it anyway, so enjoy! :)


	5. The House of Lungbarrow

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Finally managed to finish chapter 4! And it's a bit longer than usual, yayy! I'm not sure about a few things, but I think it's not too bad. Usually, I edit my stuff like 30 times before I post, but I was too impatient this time lmao. I hope you guys enjoy it! :)

Andred guided them through a few short tunnels, which apparently led to settlements right under the Citadel. High above her head, the gaps in between the broad beams that the Citadel rested on, revealed a clear night sky. The settlements underground didn't look as impressive as the high buildings above, but the small houses and shops looked rather charming in their own right. Small spheres were floating all around them, bathing everything in dim golden light. It looked like thousands of fireflies, dancing in a cave. A lovely town right under the city, Rose thought, eyes wide with wonder. From there, Romana took the lead.

"So, how do you know my name?"

They'd been walking for a good while now in complete silence through the narrow, empty streets, and Rose couldn't hold off her questions any longer. Romana gave her just a pleading look, though, and shook her head silently.

Rose bit back a sigh and turned to Andred, instead.

"I never asked; how do you know so much about the prisons?", she whispered, genuinely curious.

"Oh, I was Castellan before all of this. It was my job to know everything that has to do with the safety of Gallifrey, which also includes the prison complex.", he explained, simply.

"Okay, but what about the combinations?"

Andred waved his hand, dismissively. "I helped to develop this particular lock system. The combinations for the opening mechanism change frequently but in a regular pattern. I just had to keep track and do some small calculations.", he explained, smugly.

Rose nodded, fascinated. It was so exciting meeting other Time Lords. Since the first time she'd heard of them, they were a mystery to her. She'd been so curious about the ancient Time Lords; a society so legendary that everybody in the universe seemed to fear but also revere them. In a weird sense, it also made her feel a little bit closer to the Doctor. Seeing the place he called home with her own eyes; meeting his people, maybe even his friends; seeing and learning about his culture. Suddenly, Rose felt a wave of longing crashing upon her. She missed him so much. Going on adventures and exploring; they were supposed to do this together, and here she was, all alone on the very planet he could never see again! His home which he'd sacrificed, so the universe may continue to live and thrive. It felt like a cruel joke to her. In fact, it made Rose so unbelievably angry. Nobody deserved the kind of pain that the destruction of their home would bring, least the Doctor. And it was at this moment, where Rose briefly wondered if she could save them somehow.

_"Everybody lives!"_

The Doctor's elated words echoed in her mind. She imagined him standing right in front of the Citadel with bright eyes and a beaming smile. So happy. Her heart started beating faster, her whole body seemed to vibrate with energy; maybe she could-

No. Rose shook herself mentally. She was being silly. No matter how bad she wanted to save these people, she couldn't. She had no idea how long the Time War has been going on at this point, no insight about their enemies and no plan. She would only make matters worse.

Oh god, she had no idea when it would end. It could be tomorrow for all she knew, and then she'd be stuck here and, most likely die. She really had to get off this planet. No panicking Rose, she scolded herself.

Once she'd dealt with Romana, she would get her hands on her Dimension Cannon and get going. She would have to fix it first, though.

Well, it's a work in progress, she assured herself. She'd get out of here somehow; she always did.

"We're almost there, we just need to get out of New Town."

Romana's quiet words pulled Rose out of her thoughts. They'd reached the edge of the settlements and were walking towards another underground tunnel.

"Where are we going, Romana?" Andred asked, puzzled, "This leads us to Outer Gallifrey."

Romana turned around, fixing him with a half annoyed, half pleading gaze. "Not now Andred." She gazed at the houses, worrying her bottom lip.

"Come on."

They entered the slightly cooler tunnel. Unlike the previous ones, it had a stone staircase, that led upwards. Soon, they were outside. Rose took a deep breath, enjoying the cool night air. She turned her head and saw that they were just outside of the glass dome. Two moons, one red and the other silver-blue, were shining upon them, making it easy to see. Romana warned them to be quiet and pulled her and Andred into a small alley between two run-down buildings. Only then, Rose noticed that music and merry laughter were coming out of one of the buildings. Something like a pub, then. Time Lords and pubs; odd, she thought.

"Here, take this." Romana pressed something small and metallic into Rose's hand. Rose realized it was a ring. A really beautiful ring, consisting of three silver bands. It was as thick as her thumb and had symbols carved all over its surface. A dark blue, round, sapphire-like gem rested in a spiral on the middle band.

"What's this?" she asked, intrigued.

"It's a Time Ring. It works similarly to a Vortex Manipulator, only much better. Now, we won't travel in time but in space. The coordinates are already set. The only thing you have to do is to put it on, and twist the blue gem counter-clockwise, understood?"

Rose nodded and Romana turned to Andred. "I obviously didn't anticipate more than two travellers. You have to hold on tight for this one." Andred nodded and grabbed Romana's ringless hand.

"Right. Let's go."

Simultaneously, both women turned the respective gems on their rings. The trio vanished with a faint blue light.

It was the stranges sensation to travel by Time Ring. Rose's body was pulled apart and then put back together. It should've felt unpleasant, like those bloody transmat beams, but she only felt a calm warmth wash over her body. In the blink of an eye, she was standing next to Romana and Andred again. The latter rubbed his temples. "Alongside space-time travel; forgot how nasty that is."

Rose took in her surroundings, curious about where they've landed. The first thing she noticed was that it was a mountainous area. She was standing on a cobblestone path. On both sides of it, there were wide fields of high, luscious grass. Rose couldn't be sure, but they seemed dark red. In front of her, she saw the outline of a mountain. It was the biggest and tallest mountain she'd ever seen; way taller than the ones at the Citadel. The tops were covered in snow, which glittered silver and red under the lights of the twin moons. On the left side of the mountain, she saw trees stretching into a forest; their shiny, silver leaves were gently swaying with the wind. Rose could also make out a sparkling river, flowing at the base of the mountain, right into the forest. Her head spun with the beauty of it all; it looked like something out of a fairy tale.

"This way.", Romana said and followed the cobblestone path, towards the mountain. Andred and Rose hurried after her, both stunned into silence. The cobblestone path led to a beautiful stone bridge that spanned high across the river. The most magnificent sight came into view, however, when Rose was standing on the bridge. On the right side of the mountain, a mansion towered over the river. The main house was flanked by two tall, round towers that were stretching towards the sky. Behind that, Rose could make out another two towers; one was broad, round and had a glass dome on top, instead of a roof. The second one was square in shape with a shimmering gold rooftop.

Rose's jaw actually dropped.

"Wow."

"Is that-" Andred started to ask but broke off, too baffled to form a sentence.

"Yes.", Romana answered Andred's unspoken question. "Rose, Andred; welcome to the House of Lungbarrow."

Rose shook her head and let out an incredulous laugh. "Sorry, it's just- Well, it's certainly an improvement from the prison cell, yeah? What is this place?"

"It's the ancestral home of Braxiatel's family.", Romana answered, impatiently. "All you need to know for now is that it's a safe place. I recall that you had lots of questions, and I'll answer them with pleasure; inside."

Rose nodded, reluctantly. The fact that this magnificent place belonged to an arrogant sod did little to dampen her fascination and curiosity. But Romana was right; there were more urgent matters at hand. They quickly crossed the bridge and climbed the few broad stone steps that led them to the entrance; a set of heavy double doors. The dark, sturdy wood was strengthened with silver metal. A golden symbol was carved into the stone, above the doors. It looked like an elaborate eight with two spirals sticking out on each side.

"The Seal of Rassilon.", Andred explained quietly, noticing Rose's stare. "It's a symbol, created by Rassilon himself, to ward off the evil. Houses of the Prydonian chapter, such as Lungbarrow, use it as identification of sorts. Frankly, it has become almost something like a nobility card."

Romana rapped one of the heavy golden door knockers three times. A few seconds later, one of the doors swung out a bit.

"Don't worry, it's me.", Romana said.

The door opened fully, revealing a grinning woman with long brown hair and blue eyes. The yellow light coming from inside made her tan skin glow. She wore short animal skins and held a broad knife in her hand.

"Finally! It took you ages, Romana!"

"Well, you know things didn't exactly go according to plan."

"Do they ever?" Then, her gaze fell to Rose. "That's her?"

Romana nodded.

"Hello, I'm-" Her gaze hardened, suddenly. "What is he doing here?"

"Hello, Leela.", Andred said, softly.

Leela ignored him and turned to Romana, her eyebrows raised.

"It's a long story. Come on, let us go in.", Romana said, her voice pleading.

A massive entrance hall was waiting behind the doors. It was all polished dark wood floors and spaciously decorated ceilings, high above their heads. A huge double staircase led to the upper floors. Small spheres of warm yellow light, like the ones under the Citadel, were floating around.

Her mum would've loved it here. Oh god, her mum! Rose had been so caught up in everything that she completely forgot about her family, back in Pete's World. She'd been gone for far longer than usual; they probably were worried sick about her. She sighed quietly; soon, Mickey would give everybody their letters from her. She'd written one for him, her mum and dad, her brother and her team; just in case something happened to her, and she wouldn't be able to get back.

"Is Braxiatel back yet?", Romana asked while they were following Leela upstairs. The floating lights followed them.

"No. But no need to start missing him; he'll just pop up suddenly, like always.", Leela answered, with a teasing grin.

"I'm not- I'm not _missing_ him. We have a lot to discuss, that's all."

Rose raised her eyebrows at Romana's flustered answer. Her eyebrows almost disappeared in her hairline, when she could've sworn she saw a faint blush on her cheeks. Was she really crushing on that arrogant sod? She seemed like the nice but slightly bossy type; not at all someone who would fall for somebody like Braxiatel. She glanced at Andred, who just smirked and shrugged.

"And I thought you really missed me, Romana. I'm wounded."

They'd walked into a large sitting room. The floating lights settled on the giant chandelier, hanging from the high ceiling. Braxiatel was lounging on one of the nice blue sofas, smirking. His feet were resting on a dark wooden coffee table, situated on a golden rug. An unconscious man was lying awkwardly next to him.

Romana rolled her eyes. "Shut it." Then, she nodded her head towards the man. "Who is this?"

"Who do you think?"

"Ah."

Rose, Andred and Leela looked between the two of them, confusion written all over their faces.

"Care to share with the class?", Rose asked.

"Oh, he is just somebody who tried to kill you or worse.", Braxiatel said, casually. "I took the liberty to prevent him from accomplishing his mission. No need to thank me, though."

"What?" Rose stared at him, shocked.

Romana gestured all of them to sit. After everybody had settled, Leela pointedly sitting as far away from Andred as she could, Romana and Braxiatel exchanged a look and, finally, started to explain.

_Braxiatel and Romana exchanged a meaningful look after the guards had dragged out the strange human girl. Shortly after, Rassilon left to attend the Council meetings, with the general and her remaining guards accompanying him. Only the Castellan, Braxiatel and Romana were left in the room._

_"What strange creatures these humans are.", the Castellan said, wrinkling his nose. "So primitive."_

_"I trust you have more important matters to attend, don't you Castellan?"_

_Romana may not be the Lady President anymore, but her icy voice still held the same cutting authority. The Castellan bowed instinctively and muttered an "Of course, my Lady.", before hurrying off._

_Braxiatel smirked. "You still can be the scary Lady President, I see."_

_"Scary? I'm hardly_ scary _."_

_"Well, you don't see yourself in action."_

_Romana let out an indignant huff, but her small smile belied her anger. She sobered up quickly, though. "Never mind my scariness, what are we going to do about the girl?"_

_"We must get her to a safe place before our dear Lord President can get his hands on her. The Council meetings will go on until at least tomorrow morning, if not longer; this gives us a bit of time. House Lungbarrow is the best bet we have at the moment."_

_"Certainly the safest.", Romana muttered, blue eyes narrowing at the closed door. "The Citadel is like those palace courts on Earth; eyes and ears everywhere and endless gossip."_

_"Which is why we can't stay here for much longer; someone will notice and get suspicious." Braxiatel rubbed the small stubble on his chin. "I will see what I can do about transportation and find out where exactly they hold the girl."_

_Romana nodded. "I'll tell Leela about our plans. She is trustworthy and her skill set could be useful. She will probably be the first one to notice something is going on, anyway. Better to tell her now."_

_"You should also try to get your hands on that device they took from her. It seemed important to the girl. This way we have, at least, some kind of leverage against her, should something go wrong."_

_"What?", he asked, when Romana arched her eyebrows at him._

_"I didn't know you were this eager to play dirty."_

_Braxiatel snorted. "This is hardly playing dirty, Romana. But we need this girl on our side. You felt it too, I know you did; her timelines are so hard to read, they give me a headache, but there is also something else. Something very powerful. Whatever the Lord President saw, he got intimidated. We can't let him do something stupid; the girl may be the only chance we have to win this damn war."_

_Romana nodded. She wasn't naive; she knew very well that they needed the girl to cooperate with them. That didn't mean, however, that she had to like their approach. She didn't enjoy threatening others, even though there was no alternative, sometimes. And the girl seemed so desperate; terrified even. She sighed, straightened her shoulders and pushed those thoughts away. Some things just needed to be done._

_"Right. We shouldn't waste more time; we will meet at your office at nightfall. Until then one of us better comes up with a plan. In the meantime, you're on transportation and location, while I'll recruit and acquire the device."_

_Romana stopped at the door, looking over her shoulder at Braxiatel._

_"Be careful and don't be late." With that, she marched out of the door, a determined look on her face. She didn't notice Braxiatel gazing at her back, admiringly._

* * *

_Romana prodded the strange device in her hand, a thoughtful expression on her face. She had never seen technology like this, before. It was incredibly primitive, as it was brilliant. It shouldn't have worked, yet it had somehow. The girl was living proof._

_It wasn't as hard to obtain the device as she'd thought. After she'd told Leela everything, who had already been suspecting something was going on, she went to the research laboratories. The scientists, tasked to analyse the device, considered it a pile of worthless metal. They hadn't found anything significant, except for the strange energy signature that had caused the transduction barrier to fail. The scientists had reckoned that it had also made the device useless. Ergo, there was nothing for them to analyse._

_"Her name is Rose, I believe."_

_This jerked Romana out of her thoughts. "What?"_

_"I was there when the two children came running like mad, warning us of the Daleks. I've spoken to them later; was curious about what they were doing out there. They live in New Town. Anyways, the boy said that 'Rose' had told them to warn us and that she'd take care of the Daleks."_

_Well, they knew at least her name now, Romana mused._

_"Come on, it's time to meet with Braxiatel."_

_They silently made their way to the Chancellor's office, where Braxiatel was already waiting for them. As soon as Leela closed the door behind her, Braxiatel pulled out three rings out of his suit pocket. He gave one to Leela and the other two to Romana. "We will travel per Time Ring. The coordinates are already set. I've also found out the location of the girl; she is in the prison complex."_

_Romana's expression soured; great, they had to break her out from prison. Her mind raced, trying to figure out the best approach._

_"We will free the girl at dawn. Everyone will be too worn out by the meetings by then; that's our best chance. Tomorrow morning we will be at House Lungbarrow, hopefully figuring out a way to end this war."_

_Braxiatel agreed._ _But not even thirty minutes later, everything went pear-shaped. They'd been on their way to the meetings to keep up appearances. Leela was not permitted to attend since Rassilon forbade it, but she decided to accompany them to the meeting hall. Suddenly, they heard hushed whispers just around the corner._

_"He wants me to do what?"_

_"You are to bring the girl to one of the laboratories. The Lord President sensed great power in her; he wants to harness it. He believes she is the key to win the war."_

_"But-"_

_"This is an order. You should go now; you have a mission to accomplish."_

_After their eavesdropping, everything happened in a blur of running and making up plans along the way. Braxiatel and Romana slipped into the prison complex after Leela had successfully distracted the guards and vanished in a faint blue light. Time to get the girl._

"You know the rest.", Romana said after she finished her story.

Rose's head pounded, while she tried to process everything. "So you mean to say that your crazy Lord President is after me because he thinks I can end the war, and you rescued me because you think I can ... end the war? But that's ridiculous! I don't know what he saw but I am _not_ in a position to end an intergalactic war!"

She'd jumped to her feet at some point.

"Look, girl, we all felt-"

"First of all, it's Rose, not _girl_.", Rose scoffed, "I haven't finished talkin' yet, so don't start, banker boy!"

Braxiatel shut his mouth. Not before silently mouthing 'banker boy', though. He glared at her after noticing what he was doing. Leela grinned, clearly amused, and even Romana and Andred hid a small smile.

"Look, I don't have any powers and I can't help you with this war, no matter how much I want to. So, just give me back my device and I'll be out of your hair."

To her surprise, Romana pulled the Dimension Cannon from the insides of her robes. She put it on the coffee table. That had been easier than she thought.

"There it is. But Rose, it's useless. Whatever energy pulled you here, has also destroyed it."

Rose gently picked up her Dimension Cannon, cradling it in her hands. "And you can't fix it?", she asked.

"Well, we certainly could. But it wouldn't work, because we're still in time-lock."

Rose let out a defeated sigh. What was she going to do now? She felt like bursting into tears.

"It appears that you are unaware of the power within you, but there is definitely something there.", Braxiatel tried again, after a few moments of tense silence. "Ask Andred, if you don't believe me."

Rose turned to Andred, who had been sitting next to her. "Well?"

Andred stared at her for a moment, before wincing slightly and shaking his head. "Braxiatel is speaking the truth. Your timelines are...impossible to read. There are so many of them and they are all over the place. And you do radiate an intense sense of power. It actually hurts to look at you."

Rose's blood seemed to freeze. Could it be- no way, Bad Wolf was gone; the Doctor made sure of that. Right?

"I think I need a drink.", Rose said, rubbing her temples.

"I believe I can help with that.", said a cheerful voice.


	6. Rose's Mission

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Things are starting to get heated, guys.

_"I believe I can help with that.", said a cheerful voice._

Surprised, Rose whirled around. She dimly noticed that everybody behind her had jumped up from their seats, ready to defend themselves. A tall, dark-haired woman stood in the doorway, a bright grin on her face. She wore a loose white shirt underneath a black vest with gold buttons; black trousers and a pair of worn, dark brown leather boots. A blaster on each side was strapped on her belt, along with other items Rose couldn't identify. In her right hand, she held a glass bottle filled with dark red liquid. She looked like a space pirate.

"Oh my, would you relax? It's just me.", the mysterious woman chuckled and walked towards them. Leela and the others relaxed when they realised who the intruder was.

"Corsair." Braxiatel drawled, annoyed. "What are you doing here? And how did you get in?"

Her gaze fell to Braxiatel, a teasing glint in her forest-green eyes. "Really, Braxi boy, has nobody told you that I have a key to this place? I just came back from a mission; the Daleks were acting up not far from here actually. Anyways, I thought I could steal some wine from your father's magnificent wine cellar and relax a bit. You know, since I'm a long-time friend of the family." She waved with the glass bottle in her hand.

Rose couldn't help but stare, completely taken aback. The more time she spent on Gallifrey, the crazier her days became, it seemed.

"It's good to see you, Corsair.", Leela said, earnestly.

"And you, Leela." She swept Leela into a hug. Then, she turned to Romana and Andred, hugging each in turn. "It's nice to see you two again, as well."

"I'd hug you too Braxi, but I have a feeling that you wouldn't appreciate it.", she chuckled.

"Don't call me that.", came the angry reply.

"Irving, then? Or Brax? What about Old Gramp?"

Braxiatel didn't reply, choosing to scowl at her. The Corsair turned to Rose, who still took in the whole scene, baffled. "I'm pretty sure I haven't seen you here before, my dear. And you're human, how exciting! What's your name?"

Rose shook herself out of her daze. "My name's Rose."

"Nice to meet you, Rose, I'm the Corsair." She tossed the wine bottle, and Rose caught it, instinctively. "You wanted a drink, right? That's the best red wine you'll ever taste, trust me. Just don't drink too much of it, though. It's considerably stronger than your average human wine."

Rose mentally shrugged and opened the bottle; she had been serious when she'd said she needed a drink. After a few sips, she knew that the Corsair was right; this was indeed the best red wine she'd ever had. And the strongest. The wine first burned in her throat but then warmed her from within, like a soothing embrace. She felt less like she was going to fall apart from despair. Right, Rose, none of that. You can do this.

"I've got the feeling that you are up to something.", the Corsair said. She nodded her head to the still unconscious man.

"It's a long story," Romana said.

"What are we going to do with him?" Leela asked.

"I'll have to manipulate his memories a little. He will wake up in the prison complex and think that _Rose_ managed to escape, somehow."

Rose rolled her eyes at the exaggerated emphasis Braxiatel put on her name. Jerk.

"In fact, I'll do this right away." He hauled the man over his shoulder. "Don't do something stupid while I'm away." His gaze was fixed on the Corsair, especially.

She just smiled at him, the picture of innocence. "Me? Never."

Braxiatel just rolled his eyes and walked towards the door. "We'll talk about our next steps when I'm back." He fiddled with his Time Ring, twisted the blue gem and vanished in faint blue light.

The Corsair chuckled. "Isn't he just charming?"

"A ray of sunshine," Rose replied, dryly.

"He is not that bad.", Romana remarked.

"Once you get past the sarcasm and that cold, manipulating streak he has.", Andred deadpanned.

"At least he is on our side.", Leela said.

Rose, grudgingly, had to admit that he had been helpful; he helped to break her out from prison after all. And he prevented Rassilon to do god knows what to her. Still, he is irritating and a jerk, a stubborn part of her insisted.

"Anyways, where is Theta? I haven't seen him in a while.", the Corsair said and plopped onto the sofa. Rose, Romana, Leela and Andred followed suit.

"The Doctor's away on a mission near Skaro.", Romana replied, obviously worried.

"So, you know the Doctor as well?" Rose's heart skipped a beat when she asked that question. Talking about the Doctor with her mum or Mickey was one thing; talking about him with other Time Lords made him seem more reachable than ever.

"Of course, I know him.", the Corsair answered, "He and I are best friends." She smirked at her. "Oh, the trouble we caused in our days in the Academy; it was glorious!"

Rose felt her jealousy flaring; the Corsair was a beautiful woman after all, and she'd just said that they were close. She snapped out of it rather quickly though, and embarrassment replaced the jealousy. Feeling jealous was absolutely ridiculous; it's not like she had any right to feel that way. The Doctor and her were not like that, not really. Her mind flashed to her painful admission on that damned beach. Not eager to relive that particular part of their goodbye, Rose shook herself out of her thoughts.

"When I first met the Doctor, the Time Lords had assigned me to accomplish a task with him.", Romana piped up. "Let me tell you, he drove me insane at first, but we became rather good friends afterwards."

"Ah, the Key to Time story, right?", Andred asked.

Romana nodded. "I travelled with him after that, until the Time Lords called me back. It was rather hard to adjust to day to day life.", she added with a sigh.

"I know what you mean.", Leela said, and Rose knew that feeling all too well herself. "I really missed our travels after I decided to stay here."

"Well, I didn't travel with him, but I know that he is amazing from what I saw when we fought the Vardans and the Sontarans.", Andred added.

Romana rolled her eyes. "Don't tell him that, please. His ego is inflated enough already."

The Corsair laughed heartily at that. "Oh, how true! His fourth incarnation was the worst so far. You tow travelled with that him, right?" She gazed at Leela and Romana.

The blonde Time Lord and the human warrior shared a look and groaned. "Don't remind me.", Leela said.

"The first time we met, he boasted about his oh so great experience and knowledge; ha! When I told him I'd graduated the Academy with a triple first, while he'd just scraped through with 40 per cent on his second attempt, he sulked for the rest of the day!" Romana's nostalgic smile belied her cutting words.

Shortly after that, stories of their adventures with the Doctor were exchanged. Rose stayed silent, content to just listen to the tales of Romana, Leela, Andred and the Corsair. Her stories were particularly enjoyable.

"And you? Did you travel with him as well?", the Corsair asked Rose, curiously, "You must have, I can't explain your presence here otherwise."

"Yes, I did travel with him," Rose allowed, carefully. When the others didn't stop looking at her expectantly, she sighed deeply and took another sip of wine. "It's... complicated."

"Well then at least tell us how you two met?" the Corsair asked, gently.

Rose debated in her mind. Could she tell them? One wrong word could disrupt the whole timeline. She really didn't want to face any Reapers again. But she'd only tell them how they met; surely that information wasn't enough to be disastrous.

The arrival of Braxiatel saved her from saying anything at all. She never thought she'd be grateful to see him. She put the wine bottle on the coffee table; better not to drink too much of it.

"The guard is taken care of. For now. It's only a matter of time until either he or the others notice that his memories aren't real.", he said, grimly, settling next to Romana on the sofa.

"Okay, listen. You obviously are up to something, and I want to be a part of it.", the Corsair said, crossing her arms in front of her chest. "And before you start, Braxiatel, I know it has something to do with the war and that you need every help you can get; so let me help. I want this war to end as badly as everyone else."

Braxiatel let out a long-suffering sigh, muttering something about discretion and keeping things secret before nodding curtly.

"Fine."

"Great!", the Corsair exclaimed. "I want you to tell me everything."

Romana placed her hand on the right temple of the Corsair. "I honestly have no nerve to tell the whole tale again, so we'll do it the fast way."

The Corsair nodded and both closed their eyes. A few seconds passed, and they opened their eyes again. Rose found it fascinating how quickly Time Lords could exchange information telepathically. The Corsair stared at her, with her head cocked to the side. "Oh, I see what you mean now, Romana.", she chuckled.

Rose was getting rather irritated by the constant claims of seeing something special in her timelines or aura or whatever. Her annoyance must've shown because Andred tried to cheer her up. "It's not something bad, Rose. It only means that you're special."

"No kidding," Rose replied, dryly. She didn't want to be special. She only wanted to stop the stars from going out. And then she wanted to curl into her favourite armchair in the TARDIS library; preferably with the Doctor and a good cup of tea.

"I don't want to interrupt this lovely gathering, but we don't have- what do you humans call it- all the time in the world.", Braxiatel remarked.

"Then we shouldn't waste any more of it.", Romana said, seriously. "Rose; it's time to tell us what exactly you know about our future." Romana pinned her down with an icy stare. Rose would be impressed if she wasn't so shocked about her, obviously knowing that she was technically from their future.

"I- What?"

"Come on, Rose.", the Corsair said, punching her shoulder, playfully. "It would be pretty embarrassing if we didn't notice that somebody from our future is in our presence."

"To be fair, I didn't know at first, but it makes sense.", Andred added. "When we talked, every time I mentioned you and your connection to the Doctor, you closed off."

"You clearly know more than you want to tell us.", Romana said. "I guess it's complicated because you fear that you'll disrupt timelines if you tell us something we aren't meant to know."

"Well, since you all know that even my presence here is dangerous to the timelines, you understand that I can't tell you anything at all."

"Your grasp on the laws of time are admirable, Rose, but it hardly matters now. This war threatens all of reality. If we don't stop it, there won't be a universe to fight over.", Braxiatel said.

"Do you think I don't know that?" Rose scoffed. " You wanna know how the Doctor and I met? He blew up my job, trying to stop the Nestine Consciousness who'd fled to planet Earth because their planet got destroyed; caught in the crossfires of the Time War." She paused, looking at the various faces of surprise and sadness. "But there is something even worse than this war. Something causes whole stars to go out. They don't just die; it's like they never existed in the first place. My mission is to find the Doctor, the Doctor from my timeline, and warn him, so we can stop this. You say this war threatens the whole universe. Well, I'm not talking about one universe; I'm talking about all of them." Rose took a deep breath, avoiding any eye contact. "I'm sorry, but I can't help you. This war has already happened for me. I need to focus on the future. I need a way to get out of this time-lock, or the consequences will be severe."

A heavy silence fell over the group; nobody knew what to say, or even if they could say anything at all. And Rose wondered if she did the right thing. At least she didn't tell them that they were all dead in her timeline. Or that the Doctor was responsible for it. But judging from the looks on their faces, they already guessed the former.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I honestly didn't want to add the Corsair to the mix, but I couldn't resist. Tbh, I wanted to write one of her male incarnations first, but the female Corsair felt like more fun to me. Anyways, there you have it! So, things are slowly starting to build up. Finally! I had real fun writing the last part of this chapter; I hope it feels as intense as I meant it to be. If not, apologies haha :D I hope you guys enjoyed it; until next time!


	7. All we need is a posibility

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First of all, so sorry guys that it has been such a long time, but school and life weren't making it easy to continue writing. Since this is my final year of school, things are very stressful, so be patient with me. :)  
> This one is a bit shorter but hopefully, I'll manage to update sooner than I did now because it's so much fun to write this story and to share it with you! Anyways, enjoy! :)  
> (Oh and this chapter is not proofread or anything, so apologies for any mistakes)

Two suns crept slowly up the sky, bathing the silver leaves of the forest in their firey light. A mild breeze swept through the trees, making the leaves ring gently. Rose could've watched this scenario forever, from her spot high above. She was leaning on the stone railing of one of the balconies, that faced the forest. After the revelations of last night, Romana suggested to "get some rest". Rose knew, of course, that she'd only said this because she didn't know what to do next. Not that she blamed her because, frankly, she had no idea herself. She did say that she'd find a way of leaving, but the more the night had progressed, the unlikelier her idea had become. With no way of escaping, it seemed she would perish with the rest of the Time Lords. She must've fallen asleep at some point, waking up in one of the many guest rooms Romana had shown her, not thirty minutes ago, sweaty from a nightmare she didn't remember. 

"It's so peaceful, isn't it?"

Rose didn't turn around. "Yeah, it's beautiful." 

The Corsair came to a stop beside her. "Bad night, I reckon?"

"Yep." 

They stayed silent for a while until Rose let out a sigh. "That's it, I suppose. Endstation for me." 

"Well, if my guess is right, it's endstation for all of us, isn't it?" 

Rose looked at the cheerful face of the Corsair with an arched brow. "How can you sound so happy about that? Last night, I literally told you that all of this-", her hand made a sweeping gesture over the lands below, "will be destroyed."

The Corsair crossed her arms in front of her chest. "You forgot to include us, my dear. We will perish with this beautiful place." She smirked playfully, totally not looking like somebody who knows they are going to die soon. 

Rose continued to watch her, sceptically. The Corsair's cheerful exterior melted away, replaced with hard determination. 

"I'm not happy about that Rose, of course not. Ancient looking green eyes, very much like the Doctor's, bored into hers. "But that doesn't mean I've given up yet. One of the first things you learn at the Academy is that time can be rewritten. Time isn't some set line where you only can move forwards or backwards. It's flowing. You can move in any direction you like and bend it to your will if you know how. Of course, there are rules, but there are at least just as many loopholes." 

She paused, a mad grin on her face and eyes twinkling with determination. An expression Rose had been used to, a few years back. 

"So, you believe that this war can be stopped, somehow?"

"I don't only believe it, my dear Rose, I know it. Think about it; it's very unlikely that your arrival on Gallifrey was pure coincidence. In fact, I don't, how do you humans say it, buy it at all. Besides the fact that your cute little device would have to be advanced enough to break through the time lock and the defences of Gallifrey, the time frame you landed in, is far too perfect. Far enough into the Time War to recognise the full impact but not far enough to be too late. This interval of time is perfect for changing the timelines." 

Rose closed her eyes. This train of thought crossed her mind very often in the last few hours. What if it's true? Even the Corsair thought that her presence was not a coincidence. But there were still things that didn't make sense.

"But don't you think the Doctor would've changed everything a long time ago if it is so easy, in your eyes?"

The Corsair smiled appreciatively. "You are a bright one, Rose. Quite the good question. I don't know what exactly he will have done or won't have done, but the issue here lays within his involvement in the Time War. The moment he chose to land on Gallifrey, he became part of the event chain in which we currently are. In this case, it's incredibly difficult if not impossible, to rewrite time."

"But then why do you think that _I_ could possibly change anythin'? Did I also not become part of the event chain, when I landed here?"

The Corsair grinned like Cheshire cat. "Logic would demand it, true, but I've never been one for logic. Too restricted and ... stiff." She put her hands on Rose's shoulders. "This is the whole point, Rose. This is why everybody is so interested in you. Because they, me included, think that you are, in fact, _not_ part of the event chain! I'm sure everybody has told you already that you have rather unique timelines." Here Rose rolled her eyes but continued to listen. 

"It's like ... like you're a newborn baby, yeah that's it!" 

"I'm a baby?" Rose had absolutely no idea what the hell the Corsair was trying to tell her. 

"Yes, you are!", she exclaimed; jumping from excitement. "A brand new baby with potential, with choices and _possibilities._ And that's what we need right now. _Possibilities_." At this point, the Corsair was striding back and forth on the balcony.

"Could you be any more cryptic?"

"Just think about it, Rose. The life of a baby is full of possibilities and potential because it is yet to be lived." 

Rose waited on her to elaborate. She ceased her striding and looked her in the eyes. "This is the Time War. Time is in flux, which means that, theoretically, anything is possible right here, right now. The catch: the event chain. It is like a ... a glass cube that makes it impossible to change anything for the people inside of it. But you. _You_ are outside of the glass cube. You basically _reek_ of possibilities." 

"Thanks, I guess."

Rose considered her words. If she really could change something, of course, she'd do it. She'd do it for the two children she'd met when she'd first arrived. Then, last night came back into her mind. She remembered how she'd just sat on the comfy blue sofa and listened to the hilarious stories of Leela, the Corsair, Romana and Andred. How she'd laughed and snorted at their antics and how she and Leela had exchanged a glance every time the Time Lords would do or say something that had been just weird for the two humans. 

She didn't know them for long, but hell, if there was a way to save them from certain death, she wouldn't hesitate to do so. 

Right, if there _was_ a way. Just knowing that she possibly could save somebody didn't mean she'd be successful at it. That had been a thing she'd learned the hard way, in those four long years. Rose sighed.

"Look, Corsair, I understand now that technically I can actually change something. But how the hell do you stop a gigantic intergalactic Time War?" 

The Corsair shrugged her shoulders. "No clue, but I'll let you know if I have an idea." 

She patted Rose's shoulder. "Nobody expects from you to come up with a magnificent masterplan." She cocked her head to the side. "Well, except for Braxiatel maybe, but don't listen to him, he is an idiot.

Anyways, you gave us something that we've been missing for a long, long time; you gave us hope and most important: _possibilities._ All we need is a possibility, Rose, the rest of it, we will make up as we go along." 

Rose smiled. The optimism of the Corsair seemed to be contagious. For the first time, since she had landed on Gallifrey, things seemed to start getting better.

"Reminds me of someone."

"Well, he learned from the best.", she answered with a wink.


End file.
